Wild rabbit stew with dumplings made a regular appearance on our kitchen table when I was growing up – the rabbit having been snared locally.
Nowadays, rabbit is harder to come by. Although it is still sold in some butchers, it is not frequently found in supermarkets. If you’re on the hunt for rabbit, ask your butcher to source one for you, or try asking at one of the many farmers’ markets throughout the country.
Rabbit meat is a high-quality source of protein, and it can be used for the same dishes for which you would use chicken meat. It is leaner meat than beef, pork or chicken. Wild rabbit has less flesh than farmed rabbit and the meat is a little darker, whereas the loins of farmed rabbit are much bigger, the flesh is whiter and tastes quite like chicken. However, unlike chicken meat, it can be served pink. The farmed version available in Ireland comes mostly from France.
When cooking rabbit it is better to remove the flesh from the bone first. Rabbit’s back legs have a substantial amount of meat and so they can be prepared in a few different ways. One is to remove the flesh completely from the bone, cut the flesh between the muscle joints into three pieces and marinate overnight, then confit in duck fat for a couple of hours.
As Easter approaches, rabbit is on the menu at Thorntons. The recipe below is the one I cooked at the Rock of Cashel for Guerrilla Gourmet.
Loin of rabbit with carrot cones, pearl onions and truffle sauce
Ingredients – rabbit
Eight loins of rabbit
20ml veal stock
Method
Season rabbit loins and saute in a hot pan with a little olive oil until lightly browned. Add veal stock to deglaze. Remove the rabbit from the pan and rest for two minutes.
Ingredients – marinade
1 leek
1 shallot
1/2 bulb of garlic
Bunch of thyme
1 bay leaf
12 whole white peppercorns
50ml white burgundy wine
20ml sunflower oil
30ml olive oil
Method
Wash, peel and roughly chop leek and shallot. Then mix in a bowl with the wine, oils, peppercorns and herbs.
Ingredients – truffle vinaigrette
20g black truffle (finely chopped)
10ml white truffle oil
20ml olive oil
5ml water
10ml truffle vinegar
1/2 lemon juice
2g sea salt
Fresh milled pepper
Method
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl using a whisk. Taste and correct the seasoning.
Ingredients – truffle sauce
Rabbit bones
250ml veal stock
250ml rabbit stock
Miripoix (diced shallot, garlic, leek, thyme, bay leaf, whole white peppercorns)
100ml truffle juice
10g black truffle (finely chopped)
50ml Madeira
Sea salt
Freshly milled white peppercorns
10g truffle butter (4g diced truffle and 10g unsalted butter pureed)
10ml of olive oil
Bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf celery heart tied into a neat bunch)
Method
1. Heat pot and add a little olive oil. Add miripoix and cook for 3-4 minutes.
2. Roughly chop the rabbit bones and add to pot, cook over a medium heat until lightly brown then season with pepper.
3. Add the veal and rabbit stock and bouquet garni and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and spoon off any impurities from the stock.
4. Simmer until reduced by half, then remove the stock from the heat and pass through a fine sieve.
5. In a clean pot place the diced black truffle and Madeira and bring to the boil. Then simmer and reduce by half.
6. Add the truffle juice and the finished stock. Bring to the boil and cook rapidly to trap in the flavour of the truffle, allowing the sauce to reduce by half.
7. Taste and correct the seasoning, then fold in the truffle butter over a low heat.
Carrot cones, pearl onions
20 pearl onions
20 black truffle slices
15g unsalted butter
500ml water
Sea salt
Freshly milled white peppercorns
Method
Wash and peel the pearl onions. Heat a pan, add 5g of unsalted butter and add the onions. Season and barely cover with water, then cook on a medium heat for about five minutes until the liquid has evaporated.
Carrot cones
Four carrots
1. Wash and peel the carrots, cut in quarter and shape like cones.
2. Heat the butter in a pot then add the carrots, allowing them to colour slightly.
3. Barely cover with water and season. Bring to the boil and simmer allowing carrots to cook to al dente consistency.
4. In a heated pot add a little olive oil, some roughly chopped carrot trimmings, seasoning and water and cook through until all the liquid has evaporated. Puree carrot in a blender to a smooth consistency.
To serve
On a warm plate add a dessertspoon of carrot puree and pull into a straight line. Place the carrot cones on top of the puree and the pearl onions in between the carrots.
Garnish with truffle slices, Cut the rabbit into even pieces. Sauce the plate and arrange the rabbit on top. Sprinkle with truffle vinaigrette and serve.
Kevin Thornton is a Michelin-starred chef and owner of Thornton’s Restaurant on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. www.thorntonsrestaurant.com